Emily and her "new" bike

Saturday we went to Rita's house for a Scentsy party.  While we were there I received a phone call from my friend Marjanna who offered to give us a bike for Emily.  We picked it up on our walk home.  Emily was SOOOO excited.  She has wanted one for awhile.  It even came with training wheels.  She practiced for hours on Saturday in from of our house.  She doesn't have a helmet yet so that is all she is allowed to do.  She wanted Grandma Hull to see her new bike (because she was talking to her about it on the phone) so we quickly snapped these pictures Sunday and emailed them to her.  Emily was so excited to show Grandma how she can turn.  She said, "Grandma will be so proud of my turn."  I love it.  She was sad that there is no bike riding on the Sabbath but she had a count down till when she could take the bike out on Monday.  Rita has one for Collin so now we will just need to figure out how to get them for Landon and I on our limited budget.  :)  (Don't mind the missing doors that go in from of our laundry machines.  I had to take them off to paint the kitchen and haven't gotten around to putting them back up.)  Another great thing about these pictures is the dress Emily is wearing.  She wore it for Christmas when she was two.  It is a 4T.  It went down to her ankles.  She has gotten bigger but still loves her polka dot dress.  In another month or two it won't fit.  :)

Mother's Day 2012

Here are some pictures taken on Mother's Day.  I love my kids but Mother's Day does not have the greatest track record for us.  This year Collin decided to be extra sensitive so it was an interesting day.  :)  But overall I love my kids and the blessings they are to me.  :)I was using Collin's umbrella for an object lesson in my primary class so he decided to be Penguin in the picture.  He also chose his outfit.  Love the tie. :)

We walked by to say Happy Mother's day to Rita and I had Landon take a picture of us on my new to me phone I got for Mother's Day from my husband.

Fun Picture

Here is a picture of the "new" me.  :)  Landon took this last night and I thought I would post it.  I love being comfortable in my own body!

New family tradition

When I graduated from Utah State University my Grandma Knoll gave me a "graduation" owl. He wears a graduation cap that says 2002 on it. Emily found it the other day and has been carrying it around with her. She told me that it is her graduation owl and she thanked me for giving it to her. She had "graduation" pictures on Tuesday for preschool. She has a matching cap at school and wants the owl to go with her to her graduation ceremony next Friday. I told her how I had gotten it and she was excited that it was being passed on to her. Not that I had much choice. I told her when Landon graduates then she can pass it on to him. She looked at me and said, "dad already graduated. That is why he is a grownup and not a little boy." I love my daughter. Thanks Grandma for a great keepsake to pass around our family.

Funny kids

Emily says last night: "Mom remember how Grandma and Grandpa in Powell River have a farm."
A little confused I reminded her they didn't have a farm.
Emily replied the way you answer a person who has a hard time understanding someone, "MOM, they have a barn." (talking to me like I am and idiot.)
So mom and dad you have a farm because you have a barn.

During the regional broadcast Collin was looking at the screen and he says very excitedly, "Look it's Grandpa Palmer."
It took a minute for me to realize that the man had a round face and hairline like my father in law. Collin was a little sad when I said it wasn't grandpa. So Mel, Collin thinks you are a general authority. It was so cute how excited he was that Grandpa was on the screen. :)

Beautiful Spring Weekend

What a fabulous weekend!
Friday night we hung out at home as a family. It rained so the kids went out and jumped in mud puddles. Collin does not have rain boots so he was soaked. We went out and bought him some (and picked up needed groceries.) Emily and I potted a few pots for the front of the house. Just a laid back night.
Saturday we all slept in and the cleaned the house. It took a couple of hours but the house looked fabulous. I spent some time this week weeding out baby toys and unplayed with toys. The toy room feels much bigger. Emily and I mowed the lawn while Landon went to the store to get the gas and oil needed for our weed eater. Our lawn mower refuses to start so my friend Alicia was nice enough to let us use hers. Emily kept showing her muscles as she helped me push the mower. It was hilarious. When we took the mower back Alicia wasn't home so we just left it in the garage. Emily asked me if she could go in their house because she had never been inside before. She seemed confused when I told her that wasn't appropriate. We headed over to our friends Kim and Jason's beautiful home for a BBQ. They invited over some other families and we enjoyed good food and fun times. We had to run just before 7 because of the adult session of stake conference. We met our babysitter at our house and headed out. My sister Rita gave a beautiful talk. We sat with our friends Shane and Amber. Good company and fabulous talks. It doesn't get much better.
Sunday we slept in and went to the regional broadcast at the stake center. More wonderful talks. I love the spirit that comes from listening to general authorities. We were home by noon so I decided to make homemade chicken pot pie. I rebought my favorite cookbook (Pioneer Woman Cooks) as Naomi Inherited it when she got married. There is a great recipe in it for pot pie. I also made her recipe for chocolate sheet cake. So good. My mom called and we visited while I cooked. We decided to go out for a walk after dinner as we were more than stuffed. Rita let us borrow her jogging stroller so went went for a long walk. I wanted to drop off my friend Delilah's baby gift and she invited us to visit with them in their back yard. Her two youngest are Emily and Collin's age so they had a blast and it was fun to get to know her husband Dustin more.
They shared with us how excited they are for their baby boy Jasper to join their family in just a few weeks. They had been told that she would be unable to become pregnant and so they started fostering children. They have adopted 3 beautiful children all within two years. A miraculous story when you listen to them. Their youngest adopted child was two years old when she found out she was pregnant. She had a one percent chance of caring full term. Now they are two weeks away. Dustin shared with us how exciting it is that this will be the first child that they can love right away because he is theirs right away. He said that as hey have adopted their other children they loved them but tried not to get attached because they knew that until the papers are signed that the children could be taken. I had never thought about that before. It was wonderful to watch them interact as a family.
After leaving them we stopped by to say "congrats" to our friend Elizabeth who graduated this weekend from ISU. We ended up visiting with them for an hour while our kids played. It was a lot of fun. Collin fell asleep on the way home do Emily and I dropped Landon and Collin off before heading back to Rita's to drop off the stroller. A perfect spring evening. Only three more weeks until school is out and we can do this more often. So excited!

Finally!

I bought a cute pair of jeans from Buckle 1 year after I married Landon. I loved them. But by the time I had Emily they fit a little tight. Then after I had Emily I gave up ever fitting in them again. I was going to send them to the second hand store but a part of me just couldn't bear to do it. So they were packed away in a box. I didn't look at them again until we moved to Idaho. By that time I had Collin and I couldn't get them over my thighs. My sister, sister in laws, and good friends all seemed to lose their baby weight while mine seemed desperate to stay. Every January I dig out my exercise videos, drop a few pounds and think I am going to beat it this time. This last January was different. My friend Suzie had made me promise that after she had her son I would go to the exercise classes up at ISU with her. When she reminded me in December about my promise I was less than enthusiastic. But true to my word I went. Our friend Lorilee joined in and now I felt like I had to go because people were counting on me. After a doctor's appointment I had a goal weight set which was attainable and healthy. I started out strong as I was also having to report to my school nurse my progress due to a school district competition. By February I was a little discouraged as I had only lost 2 pounds. This was the smallest weight loss I have ever gotten in a month even though I was working out a 100 times harder, spent many sore days and was eating healthier. By the end of February I had not lost any more than those two pounds but I had gone down one pant size. March didn't see Any changes. By April I was discouraged. Then I went to see my little sister and she and my mom couldn't believe the changes. Everything had been gradual so I hadn't noticed losing the second pant size. No weight loss but I will take losing pant sizes. In the month of April I was able to lose 4 pounds due to cutting sugar out of my diet during the week. I am now 8 pounds from my goal. So tonight I decided to chance the pants from my past. They fit! My belly may hang over more than I'd like but they fit without me having to suck in, lay down, etc. It has been a long journey but because I have worked hard and it has been gradual with no dieting I hope thatI can maintain this. I just had to share because lately positive thoughts have had a hard time getting through the daily stresses. I am close to my goal and hope to meet it by the time I see my family in July. No pictures yet but soon we will get new family pictures and then I will post them. A big thanks tithe family and friends who have noticed the subtle changes and encouraged me not to give up. Thanks!

I picked up the book "Fearless" by Tim Lott at our school book fair.  It sounded like it would have an interesting storyline.  The book was predictable but thought provoking.  It was an easy read but left me thinking.  I found parallels to what is going on in the world today.  I cried through the ending. It reminded me of the innocent confidence our children place on us.  I highly recommend this book.  I am glad that I added it to my personal library.

Kids are so funny

We have had a great Easter weekend. I will write more about it later. I just wanted to record some funny things the kids said this weekend. Collin climbed in our bed this morning and said that a red spider was going to bite him and he would become spiderman. And then he told me Emily was going to bitten by a pink spider and she would become pink spiderman. And they would fight bad guys together. After watching the movie Hop Collin told us the Easter Bunnies poop jellybeans and pee frosting. We just laughed and laughed.
When got home from work on Friday Emily asked me to come and watch her exercise. She loves to watch me run on the elliptical or do sit ups etc. for 15 minutes she went through her version of my exercises plus a few of her own. (such as hanging upside down on the elliptical.) At the end she was panting and told me that now she was strong. It was really cute. I loved that she exercises to be strong. I try hard not to talk about wanting to lose weight in front of her. I always tell her that exercising makes me feel strong and healthy. I loved that she wanted to show me how she is getting strong.

Easter Tree

My mom used to read a book about an Easter Tree when I was just a kid. From that book she cooked the cookie in the story that had an egg in it and taught us how to hollow out eggs and paint them. Some of my favourite memories. I found the book the other day at Barnes and Noble's website. I bought it. It arrived yesterday. I had forgotten how beautiful the pictures are. I didn't remember that it talks about Dutch Easter traditions. Emily wanted me to read it to her right away! She loved the story and at the end she wanted to make our own Easter Tree. We went to Joann's to pick up a "tree" and some smaller decorative eggs so that I wouldn't have to paint too many. Emily stood next to me and directed me to what I was to paint. They are definitely not professional and not as nice as my moms but Emily declared them all beautiful and was so happy in the end. That just makes the whole thing worth it! Can you find the "C" and "E" eggs? They were Emily's idea. She painted the E herself with glitter paint so it is a little hard to read.

(The photo was taken on "my" new ipad. Our principal got them for us and I get to use it as long as I am employed here. :) It has been fun and my students are loving it today because I found some fun math apps.)